Behind
the surviving stories of the trow is, I believe, an older, and much more sinister, creature
of Scandinavian origin.

Peeling away the layers of accumulated
myth, the presence of this creature not only reveals elements of the trows' origin
but also confirms that, at one time, there was little, or no, distinction between it
and other preternatural creatures of Orcadian legend.

For
years, the accepted explanation for the word "trow" has been that it is simply
a corruption of "troll" - in other words, the trow is Orkney's version
of Norway's lumbering trolls.

But in my opinion this is
completely wrong.

Although "troll" is a general term to describe a number of unearthly beings, and could be
applied to Orkney's trows, it doesn't explain the corruption from "troll"
to "trow".

Instead, there is a blatantly obvious
clue.

This lies not only in the Orcadian pronunciation
of "trow", but also in another word now practically lost to Orcadian
dialect — "drow".

For years, the folklorists' fixation
on the Norwegian troll as the precursor to the trow seemed strange
to me — especially considering we already have an entity in Scandinavian lore
with an identical name, and attributes, of the Orcadian trow.

For
the real predecessor of the trow, I believe we must look to the mound-dwelling
creature in Norse tradition referred to as the "draugr".

The
Icelandic Dictionary defines "draugr" as being a ghost or spirit; especially
the dead inhabitant of a cairn. But this gives a false impression of the creature.

The pagan Norse believed that a body placed in its grave continued to
live on. The term we would use today would be "undead" and, in much the same
way as the hogboon, the draugr generally remained inside his burial
mound, but was free to leave and wander among the living at will.

Along the same lines, we have a definite connection between the trows and the ancient beliefs concerning the spirits of the dead.

Writing in the 16th century,
Jo Ben declared that the people of Stronsay:

...say that folk who die suddenly spend their lives thereafter with them
[trows], although I do not believe it."

A
clear reference to the idea that the trows were, at one time, equated
with the dead, or at least some form of afterlife.

So
is the trow a purely Nordic creation?

In short, probably
not. Elements of trow tales have similarities shared by mythical creatures throughout
the British Isles, which clearly points to a pre-Norse influence.

Towards
the end of the 8th century, when the early Norse pioneers began arriving in
Orkney, they were undoubtedly exposed to a multitude of tales dealing with
the mischievous, sometimes malicious, child-stealing "spirits" that
dwelled inside the islands' many mounds.

To me, it
seems likely that these Scandinavian newcomers equated these spirits with their
nearest equivalent — the mound-dwelling draugr. Over the years, the mix
of various strands of folklore developed into our archetypal trow.

Gradually, as the fairy lore became
more prevalent, only vague elements of the undead draugr were remembered.